Which countries use Giant Schnauzers? I am curious to know in what capacity they would be used (general purpose?) and do you know how many in number? Thanks

Giant Schnauzers have a very interesting history. In WW1 and WW2 they were used as military dogs by both the German and US armies. Since then they've been used as explosive sniffer dogs in Bosnia and Israel, for narcotics detection and search and rescue dogs in various parts of the world..

In the 1990's the Delaware Police Department had (I think) some 13 Giant Schnauzers and there were a few also in the UK Police Force. Nowadays, their role has been taken over by the GSD and the Mal, probably due to the fact that there aren't sufficient numbers of GS's being bred. If I remember rightly there were only 94 registered in the US in 2012 which is nothing compared to the number of GSD's and Mals! You'll mostly find them working as Police Dogs in Germany, Holland and the Central European countries.

I first became interested in Schnauzers some 3.5 years ago when Georgina my Shar-Pei started obedience classes. Our trainer used to bring one of her Giant and Miniature Schnauzer's with her and I have to admit I fell in love with them. When Chloe my Tibbie died, I bought a Mini Schnauzer who's a really smashing little dog and great fun to own!